Beneath and above the surface
by AT3715
Summary: Ariel wants to escape the confinement of her kingdom in Atlantica. With help from her friend Flounder, she is able to leave without being caught by her family. Ariel sees a sinking ship and saves Prince Eric. She transforms into a human so that she can explore the world above the surface but will she stay there forever? or will she return to her home to her family in Atlantica?


At the bottom of the sea in Atlantica lay an underwater kingdom home to it's ruler King Triton, his seven daughters Attina, Alana, Adella, Aquata, Arista, Andrina and Ariel, and the mer-people. Under King Triton's rule, the mer-people were forbidden from leaving the kingdom and swimming up to the surface. King Triton's youngest daughter Ariel hated the restrictions made by her father. She wanted to learn about life beyond her home under the sea.

Ariel was what humans would say was a typical rebellious teenager however her backtalk and failed attempts to sneak out of the kingdom only awarded her with harsh punishments. As Ariel's mother had passed away when she was young, Ariel turned to the only other people who she could seek answers from. When Ariel gathered her sisters and asked them why this rule was set, she noticed that they seemed bothered by her question and avoided her eye contact. The oldest, Attina, came forward and broke the silence, telling Ariel 'There are things that you won't understand Ariel, it is best if you don't know the answers to certain questions'. Ariel hated when people spoke down to her, as if she was a child.

After coming to the realisation that she would receive no answers from anyone, she decided to talk to her best friend flounder the fish about escaping. Flounder knew how much she wanted to leave the confinement of the kingdom so one day when he was visiting Ariel, he gave her a bag containing many potions that he bought from the friendly sea witch that lived in the kingdom. Ariel thanked Flounder and spent the rest of her day creating her plan to escape. After fishing through her bag of potions she finally found a potion that could help her escape without being caught by her family, a sleeping potion.

That night before dinner Ariel snuck into the kitchen and poured a few drops of the sleeping potion into each of her family member's cups and during dinner her family dozed off into a harmless and temporary sleep. Ariel knew that when the potion wore off that her family would discover her absence and the kingdom would search for her but decided to push those thoughts away. She grabbed her bag, quickly hurried out of the castle and swam as far away as she could.

After at least forty minutes of traveling, Ariel's pace slowed down when she spotted a dark shadow looming above her on the surface. She stared up at the shadow in curiosity for a few moments before realizing that the source of the shadow was a ship. She had never seen a ship before but had heard plenty of old stories about pirates and shipwrecks from Flounder, in which he described the appearance of ships in great detail. Knowing that this was her chance to see a ship in person, Ariel was excited and quickly swam up to the surface.

Once her head burst out of the water she was immediately overwhelmed at the sight before her, as a large ship slowly moving through the water was engulfed by bright orange flames. Ariel scrunched up her face taking in the strong smell of smoke that was completely foreign to her. She couldn't help but feel useless as she could hear the panicked screams of the men on board as they attempted to gather important items and pile onto a smaller boat that was floating in the water beside the sinking ship. Knowing that she shouldn't reveal herself, she hid beneath the surface and waited for the smaller boat full of men to paddle away. When the men were no longer near her she lifted her head out of the water again and was shocked as she heard coughing. Her eyes scanned the surface around her, finding a boy gripping onto a piece of wood from the ship. She hesitantly swam towards him and discovered that he was unconscious. After a short internal battle she decided to swim the boy to shore so that he would not drown.

Perched upon a rock, Ariel kept an eye on the boy as his unconscious body lay on the sand. She soon found herself distracted by the unfamiliar warmth of the sun and the slightly cool breeze that would brush past her. Bored, she decided to have a thorough look through her bag of potions. She found a potion that could make you become invisible, a potion that could make you teleport, a transformation potion and a potion that could return you to your original form. Ariel's attention was particularly focused on the transformation potion and she began to ponder using it. Her eyes travelled over to the boy's legs as she wondered what it would be like to have them instead of her tail.

She read the instructions for the use of the potion, the instructions stating that she should think about the form that she wants to change into while drinking a few drops of the potion. She closed her eyes and the image of a human form of herself appeared in her head, she then drank a few drops of the potion. The potion immediately worked its magic and Ariels tail disappeared, leaving two perfectly good human legs. Ariel gasped in awe and wiggled her toes around. Ariel noticed that she had no clothing unlike the boy to cover herself and her eyes searched the beach frantically for something. She spotted a piece of a sail that had been washed up along with other parts of the boys ship on the beach and stumbled to her feet in order to retrieve it. After almost tumbling down her first few steps, Ariel found walking on her new legs quite easy. She tied the piece of the sail around her body and walked back over to the boy, sitting down next to him.

While she was busy enjoying the new senses that being above the surface brought her, the boy beside her woke up. The boy opened his eyes and gasped at the sight of Ariel, which immediately was followed by a fit of coughing. The sound of his coughing captured Ariels attention and she froze, seeing the boy's confused expression. Ariel made the bold decision to greet the boy which was followed by moment of silence before the boy managed to muster up a reply, greeting Ariel. The boy asked for Ariels name and in return gave her, his. Eric questioned Ariel as to why she was there on the beach with him to which she answered that she saw that his body had washed up on the shore and she decided to wait until he woke up to see if he was alright. Ariel did not want to tell Eric the real story because she wanted a fresh start as a human, keeping her true identity a secret until she was ready to return to it.

After discovering that Eric was the prince that lived in the castle up on the cliffs above the beach they were currently located on, Ariel said that she would help him return to his home as when he tried to stand up his legs were wobbly.

Ariel spent three years in life above the surface, focused on finding herself and gaining endless amounts of knowledge provided to her. Over this time Eric and Ariel found their bond becoming stronger and stronger as they were slowly falling in love with each other each day they spent together. However despite all of this Ariel did miss her family and Atlantica and would often wonder what would happen if she were to return home.

After two more years, Ariel and Eric had fallen completely in love and wanted nothing more then to always be together. They wanted to explore the world together. Ariel was staring out at the view of the ocean from her window in her small house in the village. She felt as if the ocean was calling to her in some way, she longed to feel the rush of swimming through the cool clear water with her flexible tail again. Deciding that she should follow what her heart told her, she visited Eric. She told Eric about her true identity as a mermaid princess of Atlantica. At first Eric was puzzled by her revelation but when Ariel explained how she rescued him from his shipwreck, he was convinced. He always knew that there was something amazingly different about Ariel from anyone else he had met. Ariel showed him her transformation potion that she kept from all the years ago and asked him if he wanted to accompany her to pay a visit to her home. Eric agreed and they both drank the a few drops each of the potion while picturing in their minds their mer-people forms.

As soon as Ariel and Eric found Atlantica, mer-people recognized their lost princess and were overjoyed of her return. Ariel led Eric to her castle in the centre of the kingdom and entered, searching for her family. Her sisters, who were minding their own business were shocked when they noticed Ariel's presence and quickly swam over to her, each engulfing her in a bone-crushing hug out of happiness. The commotion stirred King Triton from his sleep and he searched for the source of the noise. Once his eyes found Ariel, they welled up with tears of joy and he hugged her tightly. Ariel's family, noticing Eric was confused but Ariel reassured them that he was no stranger to her.

Ariel and Eric shared some of their exciting stories and knowledge from life above the surface to Ariel's family as they had dinner together. King Triton growing fond of Eric and the way he interacted with his youngest daughter. After dinner Ariel decided to talk to her father alone about her new life above the surface, her love for Eric and her internal conflict regarding where she should stay, above the surface or under the sea. Once Ariel had finished speaking, King Triton told Ariel that she should go wherever her heart tells her and that the restrictions on going up to the surface will be abolished as he now knows that he does not need to protect his people from life above the surface. Ariel thanked her father and tried to come to a conclusion as to whether she wanted to live the rest of her life as a human or a mermaid.

After a few days of reconnecting with her family and mer-people, Ariel had finally made her decision. She decided that no matter how strong her love was for Eric, that she would never give up her family or home to be with him and that it would not be fair if she asked Eric to do the same for her. Eric was sad when he heard about Ariel's decision but was also glad that he wouldn't be separated from his family or home. The decision was hard for both of them to accept but over time they learnt to move on. Eric returned to his home above the surface, while Ariel stayed in Atlantica with her family. Every once in a while Ariel would come up to the surface to see Eric, and they would share their stories of their lives and knowledge they had gained since they last saw each other. Both of them were thankful for their strong friendship that had evolved over the years and were content with their lives even if they did sacrifice their love all those years ago to be with their families and true homes.

 **THE END.**


End file.
